


Rebirth

by hall_ucinations



Series: The New Cycle [1]
Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: After Korra AU, Book 1: Rebirth, Gen, With Art/Drawings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-22
Updated: 2014-11-22
Packaged: 2018-02-26 11:56:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2651174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hall_ucinations/pseuds/hall_ucinations
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the passing of Avatar Korra, the Avatar Cycle begins anew.</p><p>The new Avatar comes in the form of a young orphan girl, who isn't quite ready for this sudden responsibility. But meeting some old friends and earning some new ones, making great memories and going on even greater adventures... she should be just fine.</p><p>Right...?</p><p>This time of peace is not as innocent as it seems.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rebirth

**Author's Note:**

> ***This is an After Korra AU that focuses on the life of the Avatar that could succeed Korra. It is not canon and we are not declaring that it is. It was simply written for fun.
> 
> Sorry for any grammatical errors. I didn't have anyone proofread this chapter yet, but I'll fix any mistakes soon. :) I hope you enjoy the story!

"Don't worry. We will be together for all of your lifetimes, and we will never give up."

― Raava

* * *

 

Zen woke with a start. She groaned at the blinding sunlight streaming into her eyes, rolling over on her top half of an old rickety bunk bed. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment longer before she gave up, letting her eyes open slowly. She stared up at the dusty, cracked ceiling for a long moment, breathing out a little sigh.

After a moment, she pushed herself up, stretching her arms out in front of her. Then she twisted over to lean over the side of her bed, glancing below.

On the bottom bunk, she could see her best friend, Ren, still snoring away. Normally, boys and girls weren't supposed to be roommates, but the orphanage had become so crowded over the past couple of years that they had no choice but to rope everyone together. Zen glanced up to look at the other bunk beds lining the room. Some were already empty and neatly made, while others still carried sleeping little children tucked into their blankets like hibernating meadow voles. Newer additions to the orphanage. Zen felt a fond smile lift her lips, remembering when she had been just like them.

A sudden snort came from under her, pulling Zen from her thoughts, and she looked back down at Ren. He slept with his face completely smushed into his pillow, and Zen briefly wondered if he could even breathe in that position. As if on cue, Ren made a muffled sound and he rolled over onto his back. His dark hair always looked like a bush in the morning, falling into his eyes messily. Zen wondered how he ever combed that mess. His dark green eyes were still bleary with sleep as he met Zen's amused gaze.

"How long have you been up?" he asked through a yawn.

She shrugged, leaning her arms on the wooden bed rail. "Just now, actually."

Ren raised an eyebrow, folding his arms behind his head. "Did you have another dream?"

Zen nodded minutely. "Uh huh."

"You remember anything yet?"

"Nothing more than I usually do," she sighed. "It's weird. I feel like they're always out of my reach or something."

"You've been having those even before I met you," Ren pursed his lips, seemingly in thought. "Huh. Maybe..." He narrowed his eyes as he trailed off in thought.  
  
Zen frowned, leaning down to rest her chin down on the bed rail. "What? What is it?"  
  
"Maybe," Ren started again, looking resolute, "you have some kind of mental problem."

Zen scowled, pulling her pillow from behind her and throwing it down in Ren's face. He didn't bother dodging it, laughing at her instead. "Seriously though," he said, pushing himself into a sitting position. "They're just dreams. Everyone has dreams."

She grumbled. "I know that!" She moved over and climbed down the ladder, jumping down to the creaky wooden floor. "But I feel like these are important. What if they're memories and I'm forgetting them?"

Ren gave her a look. "What, memories of your parents? You didn't even remember them when you got here. What would you have to forget?"

Zen huffed in annoyance. " _No_ , not memories of my parents -- ugh, you know what, never mind!" She threw her hands up, exasperated. "You wouldn't get it anyway."

"Whatever you say," he shrugged, getting to his feet and rolling his shoulders back. "Anyway, we should get downstairs soon. Today's the day for the testing ceremony, remember?"

* * *

   
The famed "testing ceremony" was something that happened once a year. These strange people would come to the orphanage and gather up all the newly-turned sixteen year olds, making them go one by one into a specially reserved room. No one below sixteen knew what was in the room or what took place in the room, because all the kids who took it would never talk about it and the room was guarded whenever someone was inside it. _We're not allowed to talk about it_ , they would say, _you'll just have to wait until your turn comes_. It was such a mysterious thing that everyone started making up stories and rumors about it, ranging from logical to imaginative to downright impossible. Not to mention there was always something about bloodbending. It always seemed to be a possiblity, even though the testing ceremony never took place on the day of a full moon -- Zen had checked the calendar herself! Bloodbending had been getting even more controversial recently, starting with a rumor about something called _"tíngzhǐ"_   that came all the way from Republic City, it was a bloodbending technique that could supposedly stop a person's bending for a certain amount of time -- how that could circulate so quickly without the police force intervening was a little unsettling. Zen didn't even want to know how word of it got as far as Omashu.  
  
She just shook her head at all the gossips in this orphanage. There were far too many of them. Even now, while she was having breakfast in the extremely cramped dining hall with Ren, she could hear the others murmuring amongst themselves about the "shady-looking guards outside" and how they looked like they could "earthbend this house to the ground -- no, no, that one's a firebender". Zen sighed. It would be her turn next year. She would find out soon enough what was true. But for now, she was content with letting the curiosity quietly settle inside of her. Ren, on the other hand, was not. He seemed to be even more curious than she was, glancing behind her at every kid who was called up the stairs, and frankly, it was a little worrying.  
  
Ren's theory was that they were probably testing kids to join a gang. Gangs had been starting up all over the place as of late -- which was another thing Zen was getting pretty concerned with. What was with the police force in Republic City? Usually they were more meticulous than that. Maybe having to adjust to a larger city was difficult for them? But the expansion had finished a couple years ago. Well, whatever it was, Zen hoped it would get better soon.

Anyway, according to Ren, there was even a new practice going around that apparently, raising young kids in the gangs would make loyalty would come easier. It seemed plausible, but Zen had disagreed with his theory. They wouldn't be testing sixteen year olds, if that was the case. Teenagers were more likely to rebel, and the last thing gangs wanted was disobedience.  
  
"I dare you to sneak in," Ren suddenly said, startling Zen out of her thoughts.  
  
She gave him a confused look, looking up from her portion of porridge. "What?"  
  
"The room for the testing ceremony," he clarified. "I dare you to sneak in."  
  
Her eyebrows shot up. "Are you _serious?"_  
  
"Of course I am," Ren frowned, dropping his spoon into his empty bowl. "Don't tell me you aren't even a _little_ curious after all those suspicious room visits. Last year, when Qin came out of that "special room", she didn't speak for an entire day!" Qin was a friend of theirs who could talk for hours on end about absolutely anything. Needless to say, the fact that she had been stunned into silence had been quite disconcerting. She wasn't around anymore though, she had been adopted right as she turned seventeen this year. It had been a lucky break, because she would have been out of the orphanage by eighteen as per the rules.  
  
"Well, I guess! But not enough to _sneak in_ ," Zen hissed at him in response. "I'm definitely not doing it for the sake of a dare! You're just getting yourself into more trouble. Remember the last time you tried to "sneak" into something that didn't concern you?" It had been a few weeks ago, when Ren tried to eavesdrop on a conversation about the testing ceremony that was happening today. With her earthbending, Zen had felt their caretaker walking to the door long before it had opened. As a non-bender, Ren obviously hadn't. She tried to warn him, but he didn't budge. He ended up falling right through the open doorway. They put him on kitchen duty for two days as a punishment.  


Ren made a face. "Don't remind me. That kitchen was a nightmare." He had complained for days about how the cook yelled at him for getting ingredients mixed up and how the children kept whining about not getting enough food.

"If you don't want to be there for a whole _month_ this time, then don't get yourself into more trouble," Zen said sternly, pushing the rest of her unfinished breakfast to a little boy who had been eyeing it for the past five minutes. He happily took it from her, racing away to another table. Ren downright pouted at her, mouth pulling into a thin line of annoyance. She narrowed her eyes at him. "Don't even try it."

He grumbled, arms folded. "Yeah, yeah." She missed how he looked past her as she turned away momentarily to scold a boy for stealing someone's breakfast, taking the bowl from him and handing it back to a teary-eyed little girl. Ren's eyes narrowed without her notice, eyebrows furrowing as his gaze followed the guard going up the stairs.

* * *

 It was obvious Ren wasn't going to listen to her despite what she said. Sometimes he was much too curious for his own good. Zen eyed him suspiciously when he got up with the excuse of "going to the restroom". She made to stand up when he gave her a strange look.

"You can't go with me!" Ren protested, looking a little embarrassed.

 _Oh._ Yeah. Zen sat back down awkwardly. Well, she wasn't going to demand to go after him, that would be weird. So she shrugged and let him go, waiting until he disappeared from her view before getting up in turn. She walked through the dining hall, carefully avoiding children wrestling each other on the floor and side-stepping those racing after each other. She reached the doorway in time to catch one of their caretakers briskly making their way up the staircase, a tray in her hands.

Zen glanced over at the front door, peering through the dusty windows surrounding it. There actually were guards standing out there. Three of them, it looked like. Two were standing at the door, and one was out on the street. They all wore strange matching uniforms, the colors seemed to be dark blue and white. Beyond them, there was a sleek black Satomobile on the street. In upper Omashu, that wouldn't have been a big deal. But in this neighborhood, in downtown Omashu, it was quite a feat. Another guard was pulling a kid off the hood of the vehicle, shooing all the street urchins that had clambered over the car.

Zen made a sound of amusement, shaking her head before turning away. She made her way up the stairs, reaching the second floor just in time to find her caretaker with the tray leading a woman with an airbending tattoo into another room. Zen stopped, her feet rooted to the spot as she looked on in awe. An actual, fully-realized airbender in the orphanage. Did someone do something against the law? Zen stared even after the door closed behind them, leaving her alone in the long empty hallway. That was like seeing a rabaroo in the desert. The most Zen had ever seen of airbenders was on the clunky old television in the caretakers' room or in the rare mover. But seeing one _in person_... Zen didn't even know how to react. She probably looked stunned, staring at nothing now.

She jumped at the sound of a door creaking open, so caught up in her own thoughts that she didn't register the footsteps. Ren was sliding out of the room, creeping carefully across the hall to the room reserved for the testing ceremony. Zen gaped. He was totally going to sneak in, even after she told him not to! Okay, maybe she had expected that. But the _nerve_ , Zen huffed in annoyance.

As if on cue, Ren glanced around, and his green eyes caught Zen's brown ones. He paused for a second before grinning at her mischievously. Zen scowled, shaking her head at him. But he didn't turn around, instead he pushed off in a sprint before Zen could even take a step forward, twisting the doorknob and disappearing into the room. How he managed to do all that without a sound was beyond Zen. She simply clenched her teeth, sucking in a breath. He was going to get into so much trouble if he got caught.

She tried to move as quietly as she could, cringing at every creak under her feet. She glanced worriedly at the door the airbender woman had disappeared behind when she reached the room. Carefully, she turned the doorknob and opened it as fast as she could, willing it not to creak as she slipped inside.

* * *

 Zen didn't know what she was expecting, but a room full of completely random objects probably wasn't it. There were so many things in the room -- toys, trinkets, relics, knicknacks... you name it! -- that they practically piled to the ceiling. It didn't look like any of them had the slightest similarity with anything else. Zen blinked a couple times to adjust to the sight of them, wondering what on earth all of these things were even for.  
  
Ren was already standing in the middle of the room, inspecting a small wooden table that was set there. He glanced over at her, his expression a similar mix of confusion and curiosity. Then he made his way to sea of objects, picking his way through the pile. He examined everything he picked up, and then proceeded to toss it over his shoulder, where it landed on the other side of the room with a loud clatter.  
  
" _Ren_ ," Zen hissed at him quietly. "Stop that! You're going to get us in trouble!"  
  
"What do you think all of this is for?" he asked her, ignoring her worry. He was examining something that looked like a rolled-up piece of blue cloth. Something in Zen's gut twinged with familiarity at the sight of it. Ren made to throw it over his shoulder, but Zen suddenly found herself propelling forward, jumping to catch the thing before it got lost in the mess on the other side of the room. Ren threw her a weird look. She missed it in favor of looking down at the piece of cloth in her hands. She unfolded it and it came apart as two dark blue, cloth arm bands in her hands. For some reason, they felt incredibly familiar. It was almost like something from her dreams.  
  
"Zen...?" Ren's voice cut through her thoughts, and she looked up at him. He was frowning at her. "You okay?"  
  
She blinked, dropping the arm bands onto the table quickly. "Uh, yeah. Fine."  
  
He gave her a suspicious look. "What was that about?"  
  
"Nothing," she waved him off, folding her arms. "Can we get out of here now?"  
  
"Would you relax? They're still having tea." Ren turned back to the pile, rummaging through it. More things were thrown across the room, and Zen cringed at every metal clang or wooden thud.  
  
"They won't be having tea the whole time we're --" Zen started to say, but just then, Ren held up something that looked like an armlet and she stopped talking. That twinge of familiarity was stronger now. It felt like a pinch to the side, and Zen jolted.

"Wait, don't throw that!" she ended up blurting instead.  
  
Ren blinked, confused, but handed it over to her anyway. Zen turned it over in her hands. It was made of a sturdier cloth than the soft arm bands. There was a blue painted tribal design around the outer portion of it, and for some reason, she felt as if she should know what they meant.  
  
"Oh, _wow_ ," Ren suddenly said, his tone almost awed.  
  
Zen put the armlet down by the arm bands on the table and made her way over to him, peering over his shoulder. "What is it?"  
  
"It's one of those airbender staffs," he said, pulling a long stick out of the pile with a hard yank.  
  
There went that twinge again. Something in her itched to hold the staff, and she pulled it from Ren's grip before she could stop herself, ignoring his protests. Almost like an instinct, her hand pushed the wings out easily. She gently ran her fingers over the blue flaps, a feeling almost alike to wistfulness pulling her into a dreamlike state. She didn't notice Ren watching her with an odd, bewildered expression. She didn't notice the fact that she had moved to stand by the small wooden table, hovering by the armlet and arm bands she had set down on it. She didn't notice the footsteps coming down the hall outside, until the door swung open, and both she and Ren froze.  
  
That airbender woman was standing in the doorway, looking at the both of them in surprise, but she didn't look very angry. After a moment, she seemed to notice the staff in Zen's hands, then her eyes dropped to the objects on the table, and the woman seemed to still, her mouth drifting apart in some kind of shock.  
  
"I -- We're -- S-sorry!" Zen stammered out abruptly, scrambling to set down the staff, and Ren shrunk down fearfully.  
  
The woman gave her a small, kind smile. "It's okay," she said calmly. "You didn't do anything wrong."  
  
Zen frowned. "Really? But we... snuck in?"  
  
"Yes, but you won't get in trouble," the woman said reassuringly, addressing both of them. She stepped into the room, and Ren almost unconsciously shuffled closer to the door. "Which one of you found those things on the table?"  
  
Ren nodded, looking a little nervous. "Uh, I was just looking through the pile." He nodded over at Zen. "She's the one who picked those specifically."  
  
The woman nodded, pursing her lips in thought. "I see."  
  
"Um, does that mean... I can go?" Ren asked timidly, and Zen shot him a look. He gave her a crooked smile.  
  
"Yes, you can go," the woman nodded, and Ren absconded fast, closing the door behind him.  
  
"Me too?" Zen squeaked hopefully, feeling somewhat cornered now.  
  
The woman laughed at her anxious expression. "Oh, don't worry, I'm not going to get mad at you. If it's alright with you, I'd like to talk, actually."  
  
Zen breathed out carefully. "Oh... okay then."  
  
"My name is Jinora," the woman smiled, friendly and warm, "and you are?"


End file.
